Governmental Responses to Crime in the United States, 1948-1978 (ICPSR 8076)

Principal Investigator(s):Jacob, Herbert

Summary:

The Governmental Responses to Crime Project was initiated in
October 1978 as a result of the rising crime rate in urban areas of the
United States and the wide variety of programs seeking to contain it.
The project investigated the way in which urban governments, citizens,
newspapers and state governments responded to the growth and increasing
complexity of crime during the period from 1948 to 1978. Pertinent
variables in this data collection include the number of police officers
in cities and police expenditures, changes in laws as crime chang... (more info)

The Governmental Responses to Crime Project was initiated in
October 1978 as a result of the rising crime rate in urban areas of the
United States and the wide variety of programs seeking to contain it.
The project investigated the way in which urban governments, citizens,
newspapers and state governments responded to the growth and increasing
complexity of crime during the period from 1948 to 1978. Pertinent
variables in this data collection include the number of police officers
in cities and police expenditures, changes in laws as crime changes,
populations, employment rates, family incomes, percent of non-white
population, media tracking of crime, city land area, kinds of crimes,
crime rates, actual numbers of offenses, penalties given out for crimes
committed (time in jail or prison and fines), focus on crimes within
certain geographical areas (from within cities or outside the United
States), editorial page content, level of prominence of newspaper
articles on individual crimes, and the number of editorials relating to
specific crimes.

Access Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Dataset(s)

WARNING: Because this study has many datasets, the download all files option has been suppressed, and you will need to download one dataset at a time.

Study Description

Citation

Jacob, Herbert. Governmental Responses to Crime in the United States, 1948-1978. ICPSR08076-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1985. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08076.v2

Universe:
All cities in the United States with a population over
50,000 in 1950, 1960, 1970 and 1975.

Data Types:
event/transaction data,
survey data

Methodology

Sample:
United States cities with both extreme high and low values
for several factors relevant to the response to crime, as well as
"average" values for same.

Data Source:

police department data, newspapers, ANNOTATED STATUTES,
United States Bureau of the Census data, Uniform Crime Reporting data,
United States Statistical Abstracts, City County Data Book (years 1950,
1960, 1970, and 1975)